teach me how to evaluate barrel faces

[westernrover]

I've been browsing and bidding on older revolvers lately. With online auctions, I often have no choice but to go by the pictures. Some things like lock-up, gap, and end-play aren't practical to evaluate from pictures, but others are. While I find good pictures of the forcing cone to be rare, the condition of the barrel face is more easily photographed and sometimes I see the top strap included. While some types of wear are apparent and serious problems like cracks would be obvious, there are other things I see that I'm not sure I understand.

These barrel faces are all from mid-century revolvers of the same make and model type. The one stainless steel one is also the same model though obviously stainless and of more recent make. What are you seeing on these that you can point out to me?



The one in the upper-right appears to have considerable etching but I wonder if it was chamfered in the ID for some reason. It appears to have been chamfered on the OD. The cylinder face on that gun shows no erosion or etching. Maybe it was replaced. I understand cutting forcing cones at different angles with a reamer for different bullet types, but that would only manifest itself in the black hole. I wonder what the purpose of this face chamfer is.

Do you have comments on any of the other barrel faces? Can you say anything about the flame cutting of the top strap in any of these examples? Any other pictures that demonstrate something to understand?

 

[DPris]

Looks like some erosion on 2 & 3.
Denis

 

[ColtPythonElite]

Looks like leading on the stainless

 

[BigBlue 94]

1 2
3 4

1 and 4 seem to be in the best shape. 2 and 3 have been shot a lot.

1 has turning marks on the face, plus saw marks. The turning marks could mean a shortened forcing cone due to someone "re-facing" the barrel. 4 has saw marks too, but that's common.

2 seems to be the worst overall, with a heavy fire line above the cylinder.

 

[Drail]

You will never get enough accurate data about a gun from a photo. You must handle it and check for play. If you are willing to purchase a gun based only on a photo and a story - well, good luck with that. There are dealers out there that will eat you alive. I worked in that world for years and it's unbelievable how slick some of those guys are. They're worse than used car salesmen.